Masked people bang on door at Gilgo killer Rex Heuermann's Massapequa Park home, prompting police response

Two masked people banged on the door of Gilgo serial killer Rex A. Heuermann's Massapequa Park home Tuesday night before being scared off by a dog, according to police and the family's attorney.

A nine-second Ring doorbell camera video, obtained by Newsday, shows two people clad in black masks, T-shirts and shorts running from the porch of the First Avenue home as the family's dog, a black Lab mix named Stewie, is heard barking loudly from the inside. 

Asa Ellerup, Heuermann's ex-wife, and her two children, Victoria and Christopher, were home at the time of the incident, said Robert Macedonio, the family's attorney.

The people scurry off without entering the home or interacting with the family, the video shows.

Macedonio said his client, who filed a police report, believes it was an attempted break-in.

A Nassau police spokesman confirmed the incident, which occurred around 8 p.m. Tuesday, but said it did not meet the criteria of an attempted break-in because there was no attempt to enter the Heuermann home.

The individuals, the spokesman said, appear to have only banged on the door of the home before running off. Nassau police sent a patrol car around the neighborhood but did not find the pair, the spokesman said.

"This is the constant harassment that she faces on a daily basis, with people driving by, saying stuff as they walk by," Macedonio said of Ellerup. "They leave stuff on the door or throw stuff. They make comments when they drive by; pointing, taking pictures on a regular basis."

Despite the alleged harassment, Macedonio said Ellerup is unlikely to sell her home any time soon, in part, because of state and federal tax liens of nearly $533,000 on it going back to 2010, documents show.

If Ellerup tried to sell the house, "she'd walk away with little to nothing," Macedonio said.

Last month, Rex Heuermann, who admitted strangling eight women between 1993 and 2010, was sentenced to multiple terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole, closing the door on a case that had haunted Long Island for years.

Heuermann, 62, who had an architectural consulting firm in midtown Manhattan before he was arrested on July 13, 2023, pleaded guilty to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla, and admitted the uncharged killing of Karen Vergata. All the women were sex workers who encountered Heuermann when he sought their services.

Newsday's Grant Parpan contributed to this story.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.